TWHS varsity football team to face Duncanville at Texas Stadium without Willig on sideline

Mike Jones

Published 7:00 pm, Wednesday, September 13, 2000

It's definitely not a normal week for The Woodlands High School varsity football team.

It would be different enough just getting ready this week to face state-ranked Duncanville at Texas Stadium in Irving. But the Highlanders are doing it without 20th-year TWHS head coach Weldon Willig, who was released from the hospital on Tuesday afternoon following weekend angioplasty surgery.

Willig had to leave last Friday night's season-opening 35-21 win over Kingwood because he wasn't feeling well. He was taken to a hospital and later had the surgery.

Defensive coordinator Ken Craig said preparations this week have been a little different, with the other coaches having to add responsibilities, while the players have had to adjust to not having Willig around. Despite the circumstances, Craig said things were going OK for the Highlanders following last week's victory.

"(The opener) went well," he said. "I was really pleased with the way the defense came out and got after them. I thought they were really aggressive. They ran to the football well. We didn't really give them much except for the blown assignment on the blitz. Other than that they didn't have a threat to have anything get started.

And I was really excited about our offense. They went out there and took it down the field and score the first two times we had the ball. And in the second half they came out and scored on their first possession. And then we stopped them and we went down and scored and made it 35-7. At that point we might have lost our edge a little bit. We need to work on that so it doesn't happen. The game was pretty much in hand at that point. A positive is that it gave us the chance to get a lot of kids into the game to get them experience. It was a good night."

Craig said there were plenty of heroes in the contest.

"Tim Cryer had a good night on the defensive line," said Craig. "He had eight tackles and three were sacks. And in the secondary, Jason Simpson played a very good game. On offense, (quarterback) Mike Merrick was exceptional (in his first varsity start in place of the injured Ben Barton). He was almost flawless throwing the ball. And Chris Easley had three scores. And Kenny Bland made a couple of spectacular catches. And Brian Carter had a couple of exceptional kickoff returns and made a spectacular catch in the first quarter. And Nick Schroeder had four receptions for 68 yards. He was our leading receiver. And Josh Stuckey played real well on the offensive line.

"There were a number of kids who had standout performances. It was exciting for us since it was the first game of the year."

Now, TWHS will face Duncanville on Saturday night at Texas Stadium.

"We're (No. 7 in the AP state poll) and Duncanville (is No. 8)," said Craig. "We're ranked pretty close. They're very fast on both sides of the ball. They have a lot of skill. It's going to be quite a test."

Willig and Duncanville head coach Bob Alpert decided to begin the series between the two programs. Next season Duncanville will play TWHS at the Astrodome.

"One of the reasons we wanted to go there was to play a quality opponent and play in a venue that's going to similar to a playoff type setting," said Craig. "In our region if you play very long in the playoffs you have to play in Texas Stadium some time. We hope it's valuable experience come playoff time."

Last week Duncanville opened its season with a 17-7 victory over No. 5 state-ranked Plano East.

"They've beaten a quality opponent," said Craig. "Last year they went 8-2 and didn't make the playoffs. Coach Alpert said he felt like he had a better team last year than when they won state (in 1998). They have an outstanding program. It's going to be a fun evening. We're looking forward to it."

Note: Starting quarterback Ben Barton did see action in last week's game. The injured signal-caller played three or four snaps and completed a pass to Kenny Bland. "He's not 100 percent," said Craig. "Certainly, Merrick is going to play quarterback (against Duncanville). He's done too good of a job." Merrick, a starter on defense last year, also played some defense against Kingwood, making six tackles in just one quarter of action. "We miss him on that side of the ball, but our philosophy is that we play guys where they need to be to win football games.